Biotic interchange between the Indian subcontinent and mainland Asia through time

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 12132 - 6
• Main Authors: Klaus, Sebastian, Morley, Robert J., Plath, Martin, Zhang, Ya-Ping, Li, Jia-Tang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 04.07.2016; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/158/670; 704/158/852; 704/2151/414; Asia; Biota; Dispersal; Environmental conditions; Eocene; Fossils; Geology; Humanities and Social Sciences; India; multidisciplinary; Phylogeny; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Time Factors; United Kingdom > UK; Asia; Indian subcontinent; China; India
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12132

Biotic interchange after the connection of previously independently evolving floras and faunas is thought to be one of the key factors that shaped global biodiversity as we see it today. However, it was not known how biotic interchange develops over longer time periods of several million years following the secondary contact of different biotas. Here we present a novel method to investigate the temporal dynamics of biotic interchange based on a phylogeographical meta-analysis by calculating the maximal number of observed dispersal events per million years given the temporal uncertainty of the underlying time-calibrated phylogenies. We show that biotic influx from mainland Asia onto the Indian subcontinent after Eocene continental collision was not a uniform process, but was subject to periods of acceleration, stagnancy and decrease. We discuss potential palaeoenvironmental causes for this fluctuation. The Paleogene continental collision between the Indian subcontinent and Asia initiated biotic interchange over a timescale of millions of years. Klaus et al . develop a phylogeographic method to estimate the dynamics of biotic interchange over these timescales, revealing periods of acceleration, stagnation and decline.